‘Extreme Prey’: Cedar Rapids native uses Iowa as backdrop for latest in ‘Prey’ series

Quite a few years ago, John Sandford told a small group of readers at the Barnes & Noble in Cedar Rapids that he might be wrapping up his popular series of Lucas Davenport 'Prey” books.

As I picked up 'Extreme Prey” (Putnam, $29, 406 pages) the other day, I once again thanked him for changing his mind.

In this 26th of the 'Prey” novels, Sandford has Davenport chasing around Iowa trying to track down a woman and her son who have designs on putting a presidential candidate in harm's way. 'The Purdys weren't rich, but they did all right, not counting the possibly inherited tendency to psychosis,” is how Sandford describes them.

Davenport - jobless after tiring of the bureaucracy and leaving his position with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension - is asked by the Minnesota governor to look into a potentially dangerous situation on the campaign trail down in Iowa. The governor, while campaigning for president, has learned that somebody might be planning to harm the front-runner. He'd like to be the front-runner's vice president, and wants Davenport to see what he can find out about the threats.

What ensues is a vintage Sandford narrative, including a dizzying travelogue with stops in Ames, Atlantic, Pella, Mount Pleasant, Burlington, Davenport, Iowa City, Hills, Grinnell, West Branch and Des Moines. There's even a visit to a home on Bever Avenue in Cedar Rapids (the author's hometown).

Blessed with the sanctions of presidential campaigns, Davenport works closely with the Iowa DCI while working a case that has economic roots in the farm crisis of the 1980s and the Wall Street debacle of the 2000s. Bodies pile up in Davenport's wake as he tugs at threads of the conspiracy, and it all leads to a suspense-filled day at the Iowa State Fair - where, of course, Davenport eats something on a stick.

Davenport engages mostly with a new cast of characters, all engagingly developed. But brief appearances are made by old standbys, including BCA Agent Virgil Flowers and his omnipresent descriptive adjective.

The dialogue crackles with authenticity, the plot does not waver from the realm of reality and occasional wry observations and bouts of humor help temper the breakneck pace of the suspense.

And lest you worry that Sandford's still thinking about pulling the plug, there's a strong hint at the next stage of the saga as this one wraps up.